28 U.S. Code § 1921 - United States marshal’s fees

(1)The United States marshals or deputy marshals shall routinely collect, and a court may tax as costs, fees for the following:

(A)Serving a writ of possession, partition, execution, attachment in rem, or libel in admiralty, warrant, attachment, summons, complaints, or any other writ, order or process in any case or proceeding.

(B)Serving a subpoena or summons for a witness or appraiser.

(C)Forwarding any writ, order, or process to another judicial district for service.

(D)The preparation of any notice of sale, proclamation in admiralty, or other public notice or bill of sale.

(E)The keeping of attached property (including boats, vessels, or other property attached or libeled), actual expenses incurred, such as storage, moving, boat hire, or other special transportation, watchmen’s or keepers’ fees, insurance, and an hourly rate, including overtime, for each deputy marshal required for special services, such as guarding, inventorying, and moving.

(F)Copies of writs or other papers furnished at the request of any party.

(G)Necessary travel in serving or endeavoring to serve any process, writ, or order, except in the District of Columbia, with mileage to be computed from the place where service is returnable to the place of service or endeavor.

(H)Overtime expenses incurred by deputy marshals in the course of serving or executing civil process.

(2)The marshals shall collect, in advance, a deposit to cover the initial expenses for special services required under paragraph (1)(E), and periodically thereafter such amounts as may be necessary to pay such expenses until the litigation is concluded. This paragraph applies to all private litigants, including seamen proceeding pursuant to section
1916 of this title.

(3)For purposes of paragraph (1)(G), if two or more services or endeavors, or if an endeavor and a service, are made in behalf of the same party in the same case on the same trip, mileage shall be computed to the place of service or endeavor which is most remote from the place where service is returnable, adding thereto any additional mileage traveled in serving or endeavoring to serve in behalf of the party. If two or more writs of any kind, required to be served in behalf of the same party on the same person in the same case or proceeding, may be served at the same time, mileage on only one such writ shall be collected.

(b)The Attorney General shall from time to time prescribe by regulation the fees to be taxed and collected under subsection (a). Such fees shall, to the extent practicable, reflect the actual and reasonable cost of the service provided.

(c)

(1)The United States Marshals Service shall collect a commission of 3 percent of the first $1,000 collected and 11/2 percent on the excess of any sum over $1,000, for seizing or levying on property (including seizures in admiralty), disposing of such property by sale, setoff, or otherwise, and receiving and paying over money, except that the amount of commission shall be within the range set by the Attorney General. if [1] the property is not disposed of by marshal’s sale, the commission shall be in such amount, within the range set by the Attorney General, as may be allowed by the court. In any case in which the vessel or other property is sold by a public auctioneer, or by some party other than a marshal or deputy marshal, the commission authorized under this subsection shall be reduced by the amount paid to such auctioneer or other party. This subsection applies to any judicially ordered sale or execution sale, without regard to whether the judicial order of sale constitutes a seizure or levy within the meaning of State law. This subsection shall not apply to any seizure, forfeiture, sale, or other disposition of property pursuant to the applicable provisions of law amended by the Comprehensive Forfeiture Act of 1984 (98 Stat. 2040).

(2)The Attorney General shall prescribe from time to time regulations which establish a minimum and maximum amount for the commission collected under paragraph (1).

(d)The United States marshals may require a deposit to cover the fees and expenses prescribed under this section.

(e)Notwithstanding section
3302 of title
31, the United States Marshals Service is authorized, to the extent provided in advance in appropriations Acts—

(1)to credit to such Service’s appropriation all fees, commissions, and expenses collected by such Service for—

(A)the service of civil process, including complaints, summonses, subpoenas, and similar process; and

(B)seizures, levies, and sales associated with judicial orders of execution; and

(2)to use such credited amounts for the purpose of carrying out such activities.

Provisions for serving venires and summoning grand and petit jurors were omitted as useless since marshal’s fees are now covered into the Treasury and there is no basis for apportioning the cost of summoning jurors for a term of court and taxing the same to individual cases.

The marshal’s fee “for holding a court of inquiry or other proceedings before a jury, including summoning a jury, $5” is omitted as obsolete in the Federal practice. See, Black’s Law Dictionary “Court of Inquiry.” See, also, Webster’s International Dictionary.

A fee of 50 cents “for each bail bond” is omitted as covered by the general provision for taxation of marshal’s fees in criminal cases.

The provisions for a fee of $5 for drawing and executing a deed and $1 for executing a deed prepared by a party or his attorney are omitted as unnecessary. It is the marshal’s duty to execute conveyances of property which he sells on execution and his salary compensates him therefor. There is no occasion for him to draw such a deed and no beneficial purpose in taxing the parties a fee for his signature.

The 2 per centum fee for disbursing moneys is omitted as an unnecessary burden upon funds belonging to litigants.

The provision that a folio consists of “100 words or major fraction thereof” is inserted to conform with section
607 of title
28, U.S.C., 1940 ed., which is transferred to title 44, U.S.C., 1940 ed., Public Printing and Documents, along with section 606 of said title 28, to which said section
607 also relates.

The provision for a lump sum to be determined by the court and taxed in criminal cases was added. It fixes a maximum of $25 in misdemeanor cases and $100 in felony cases. It may be questioned whether costs as such should ever be taxed against the convicted defendant in a criminal case. The acquitted defendant is not permitted to tax costs against the United States. Indeed the allowance of costs in criminal cases is not a matter of right but rests completely within the discretion of the court. Morris v. United States, 1911, 185 Fed. 73, 107 C.C.A. 293.

In Alberty v. U.S., C.C.A.9, 1937, 91 F.2d 461, the defendant was fined $100 on each of 11 accounts of an indictment under the 1906 Food and Drug Act (title
21, §§ 2,10, U.S.C., 1934 ed., as amended). Costs of prosecution were taxed in the sum of $1,499.80. Yet the court in its discretion might have reached substantially the same result by imposing a fine of $200 on each count without any taxation of costs.

Changes were made in phraseology.

References in Text

The Comprehensive Forfeiture Act of 1984, referred to in subsec. (c)(1), is chapter III of title II of Pub. L. 98–473, Oct. 12, 1984, 98 Stat. 2040, as amended. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see Short Title of 1984 Amendment note set out under section
1961 of Title
18, Crimes and Criminal Procedure, and Tables.

Amendments

1990—Subsec. (c)(1). Pub. L. 101–647substituted “if the property is not disposed of by marshal’s sale” for “If the property is to be disposed of by marshal’s sale”.

1988—Pub. L. 100–690added subsecs. (a) to (d), struck out former subsecs. (a) and (b), and redesignated former subsec. (c) as (e).

1986—Pub. L. 99–646designated existing provisions as subsec. (a) with pars. (1) to (9) and subsec. (b) with pars. (1) and (2), substituted a period for the semicolon at end of each par., and added subsec. (c).

1962—Pub. L. 87–621increased fees for serving an attachment in rem, or libel in admiralty, warrant, attachment, summons, capias, or any other writ from $2 to $3, for serving a subpoena or summons for a witness or appraiser from 50 cents to $2, for preparation of a proclamation in admiralty from 30 cents to $3, and for copies of writs or other papers furnished at the request of any party from 10 to 30 cents per folio of 100 words or fraction thereof, and mileage for necessary travel from 10 cents a mile to 12 cents per mile, or fraction thereof, inserted provisions authorizing a fee of $1, in addition to the prescribed fee, for forwarding any writ, order, or process to another judicial district for service, and $3 for preparation of any notice of sale or other public notice or bill of sale, permitting payment of travel expenses where there is an endeavor to serve any process, writ, or order, prohibiting collection of mileage fees for services or endeavors to serve in the District of Columbia, and empowering marshals to require a deposit to cover all fees and expenses, and substituted provisions authorizing a fee of $3 for serving a writ of possession, partition, execution, order or process, and commissions of 3 per centum on the first $1,000 collected and 11/2 per centum on amounts over $1,000 for seizing and levying on property (including seizures in admiralty), disposing of the same and receiving and paying over the money for provisions which permitted a marshal serving such a writ or process, and seizing and levying on property, advertising and disposing of the same and receiving and paying over the money, to receive the same fees and poundage as allowed for similar services to the sheriffs of the States in which the service is rendered, and 21/2 per centum on any sum under $500, and 11/2 per centum on amounts over $500 for sale of vessels or other property under process in admiralty, or under the order of a court of admiralty, and provisions permitting collection of actual expenses incurred, and $3 per hour for each deputy marshal required, for the keeping of property attached, and directing the marshal to collect, in advance, a deposit to cover initial expenses and periodically thereafter such amounts as necessary to pay expenses until litigation is concluded, for provisions which allowed only such compensation as the court, on petition, might allow.

Pub. L. 101–162, title II, Nov. 21, 1989, 103 Stat. 997, provided in part: “That notwithstanding the provisions of title 31 U.S.C. 3302, for fiscal year 1990 and hereafter the Director of the United States Marshals Service may collect fees and expenses for the services authorized by 28 U.S.C. 1921 as amended by Public Law 100–690, and credit such fees to this appropriation to be used for salaries and other expenses incurred in providing these services”.

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